National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Herbert Ariko Edmund has been declared winner of today (Thursday) Soroti East Division by-election.
Ariko garnered a total of 9,407 votes, beating his closest competitor and Forum for Democratic change (FDC) candidate Moses Attan who garnered 8,771 votes.
The duo have been entangled in a hotly contest by-election that has attracted the country’s big wigs and even united the country’s biggest opposition parties with National Unity Platform (NUP) principal Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine joining FDC’s Dr Kizza Besigye to rally support for Attan.
The Soroti East seat fell vacant when court nullified the election of Attan on grounds that the Electoral Commission failed to conduct free and fair elections after it irregularly transferred Opiyai and Aloet wards from Soroti East to Soroti West after nomination of the candidates, a move that disfranchised over 4,560 voters.
